Feeding the future: The critical role of seeds in food systems and cultural heritage

Genetic resources constitute a critical resource to deal with the current climatic and geostrategic challenges. The XXI century reintroduced the problem of food security in political and scientific agendas of developed countries. At the roots of this re-emergence are multidimensional reasons: economic (cereals crisis in 2008), public health (covid pandemic), and war (Russia vs Ukraine). Within this context, the reflection on basic issues concerning the food system, namely food production and the resources involved in, such as seeds, is of utmost importance. The paper presents an exploratory approach to genetic conservation through banks in Portugal. The sections of the paper include a problematization, namely the international and national framework on the subject, the design of an analytical model, and the presentation of the results of a case study of a Portuguese genetic bank.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Crescimento de raízes e sanidade de cipó-titica (Heteropsis flexuosa) submetido à exploração no Estado do Amapá.

Editado por Lúcia Helena de Oliveira Wadt

Population structure of Pentaclethra macroloba (Willd.) Kuntze in high and low floodplains of the Amazonian estuary.

The flood cycle of floodplain forests and topographic variations are important factors of diversification and morphological and ecophysiological adaptations of the plant community. Pentaclethra macroloba is a hyperdominant species adapted to flood variations. The objective of this study was to characterize the P. macroloba population structure between environments with high topography, flooded only during the rainy season and peak flood of the river, (high várzea-HV) and low topography with daily flood (low várzea-LV). The study was carried in the Mazagão Experimental Field, Brazil. Four plots of 1 ha were installed in each environment. All individuals with DBH ≥ 5 cm were measured and georeferenced. ANOVA test, 0.05% probability, was applied to verify the structural differences between two environments. The HV had higher population density (51.2 individuals.ha-1) compared to the LV (36.7 individuals.ha-1), although without significance. Basal area was higher in the HV (10.42 m²) in comparison with LV (5.90 m²), with significant difference (F = 7.13, p = 0.00795). The maximum DAP of HV was 67 cm with mean of 24 cm. The LV presented maximum DBH of 42 cm with mean of 21 cm, showing structural difference between the two environments (F = 6.22, p = 0.0131). The aggregation index showed high aggregation in the LV (R = 0.89) than in the HV (R = 0.79), differing significantly between the two environments (F = 11.31, p = 0.0008). Frequency and time of flooding are ecological drives that structure the population of pracaxizeiro causing morphological and ecophysiological adaptations to the individual

Efeito da aplicação do lodo de esgoto (Biossólido) sobre a produção e decomposição do folhedo de Eucalyptus grandis e sobre o retorno de nutrientes ao solo, em Itatinga-SP.

O tratamento do esgoto urbano gera um resíduo denominado lodo de esgoto que pode ser utilizado para aumentar a produtividade de culturas agrícolas e florestais. Este artigo apresenta o efeito que a aplicação de doses crescentes de biossólido (O a 40 tlha), produzido na ETE de Barueri da SABESP - SP, provocou sobre o retorno de nutrientes ao solo, através da produção de folhedo (derrubada de folhas senescentes das árvores) e também sobre a taxa de decomposição do folhedo acumulado sobre o solo (manta orgânica) em um talhão experimental de Eucalyptus grandis, localizado na Estação Experimental de Ciências Florestais da ESALQ/USP em Itatinga - SP. Após três anos de coleta mensal do folhedo, o tratamento onde foram aplicadas 40 t ha-1 de biossólido, depositou 4.828 kg ha-1 de folhedo a mais do que o testemunha, devolvendo ao solo cerca de cinco vezes mais Ca, duas vezes mais N e três vezes mais P. Foi registrado também um aumento de 40% na taxa de decomposição do folhedo, quando comparado com o tratamento testemunha. Os vários resultados obtidos na Estação Experimental de Ciências Florestais da ESALQ/USP em Itatinga, confirmam a hipótese de que a aplicação do biossólido altera os padrões de ciclagem dos nutrientes, intensificando o retorno de nutrientes e acelerando sua incorporação ao solo

Large and small-scale structures and the dust energy balance problem in spiral galaxies

The interstellar dust content in galaxies can be traced in extinction at optical wavelengths, or in emission in the far-infrared. Several studies have found that radiative transfer models that successfully explain the optical extinction in edge-on spiral galaxies generally underestimate the observed FIR/submm fluxes by a factor of about three. In order to investigate this so-called dust energy balance problem, we use two Milky Way-like galaxies produced by high-resolution hydrodynamical simulations. We create mock optical edge-on views of these simulated galaxies (using the radiative transfer code SKIRT), and we then fit the parameters of a basic spiral galaxy model to these images (using the fitting code FitSKIRT). The basic model includes smooth axisymmetric distributions along a S\'ersic bulge and exponential disc for the stars, and a second exponential disc for the dust. We find that the dust mass recovered by the fitted models is about three times smaller than the known dust mass of the hydrodynamical input models. This factor is in agreement with previous energy balance studies of real edge-on spiral galaxies. On the other hand, fitting the same basic model to less complex input models (e.g. a smooth exponential disc with a spiral perturbation or with random clumps), does recover the dust mass of the input model almost perfectly. Thus it seems that the complex asymmetries and the inhomogeneous structure of real and hydrodynamically simulated galaxies are a lot more efficient at hiding dust than the rather contrived geometries in typical quasi-analytical models. This effect may help explain the discrepancy between the dust emission predicted by radiative transfer models and the observed emission in energy balance studies for edge-on spiral galaxies.Comment: 9 pages, 5 figures, accepted for publication in A&

The CP-conserving 2HDM after the 8 TeV run

We confront the most common CP-conserving 2HDM with the LHC data analysed so far while taking into account all previously available experimental data. A special allowed corner of the parameter space is analysed - the so-called wrong-sign scenario where the Higgs coupling to down-type quarks changes sign relative to the Standard Model while the coupling to the massive vector bosons does not.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures, to appear in the proceedings of the 22nd International Workshop on Deep-Inelastic Scattering and Related Subjects (DIS 2014), 28 April - 2 May 2014 Warsaw (Poland

Pequi: a Brazilian fruit with potential uses for the fat industry.

Pequi is a native fruit from Brazil, found in the Amazon, Caatinga, Cerrado and Atlantic Rain Forest regions. It is one of the main plants with great potential for sustainable use in Central Brazil. Among 16 species comprising Caryocar genus, three are highlighted: C. brasiliense, C. villosum, and C. coriaceum, of economic importance for families in small communities of Brazilian Cerrado. They are generally organized in cooperatives and use the leaves for preparing medicinal extracts, and the fruits for culinary purposes. When the sale of fresh fruits is reduced, they produce and commercialize fruit preserves, and liqueur products, as well as extract the oil. Harvesting of mature fruits after falling from the tree while keeping some fruits at the plant is the best way for its sustainable production. The internal mesocarp contains from 36 to 66% dry weight of oil having traditional culinary, medicinal and cosmetic uses. This oil has 60% of oleic acid and 35% palmitic acid, thus suitable for industrial fat hardstocks. The presence of the triacylglycerols POO and POP makes the oil of interest for cosmetic and food industries. Both pulp and kernel oils have been studied for their health effects. By physical, enzymatic or chemical modification, the oil has shown potential uses as cocoa butter substitute and zero trans fat product

The Wrong Sign limit in the 2HDM

A sign change in the Higgs couplings to fermions and massive gauge bosons is still allowed in the framework of two-Higgs doublet models (2HDM). In this work we discuss the possible sign changes in the Higgs couplings to fermions and gauge bosons, while reviewing the status of the 8-parameter CP-conserving 2HDM after the Large Hadron Collider 8 TeV run.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures. Proceedings of the Second Annual Conference on Large Hadron Collider Physics, Columbia University, New York, U.S.A, June 2-7, 2014. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1407.439